[Effect of mutations in Drosophila melanogaster tumor suppressor Merlin on proliferation and differentiation of wing cells].

Experiments on transplantation of wing imaginal discs homozygous for a mutation in the tumor suppressor gene Merlin have demonstrated that this mutation does not induce malignant tumors. Marking of the wing disc compartment borders by specific antibodies showed the absence of essential compartment border defects in case of the Merlin mutation. Drosophila melanogaster cells mutant for Merlin have shorter cell cycle than normal cells. Proliferation of imaginal discs lasts longer in case of the mutation. It is known that beginning from some moment of development, wing veins serve as clonal restriction lines that cannot be crossed by growing mosaic clones. We showed that the Merlin mutation leads to depression of vein clonal restriction property. This means that this gene is involved not only in the control of cell proliferation, but also in the control of cell mobility and adhesion.

[Mutation of Indy(p115) increases the life expectancy of imago of Drosophila melanogaster depending on sex and genetic background]. / Mutatsiia Indy(p115) uvelichivaet prodolzhitel'nost' zhizni imago Drosophila melanogaster v zavisimosti ot pola v geneticheskogo okruzheniia.

The Indyp115 allele in heterozygous state almost doubles the life span of adult Drosophila melanogaster, and this effect largely depends on the strain used for obtaining heterozygotes. Male and female life span depends on Indyp115 to a different degree. Apart from Indyp115 heterozygotes, sexual dimorphism for life span was also observed in strain Hikone-AW, but not in OregonR and TM3 balancer. In heterozygotes Indyp115/OR, both the average life span and female reproductive period increased as compared to OR control. No substantial increase in female reproductive period in Indyp115/Hk heterozygotes was found. In homozygotes for allele Indyp115, we have previously revealed two phases of embryotic lethality and lethality at the larval and pupa stages. Thus, allele Indyp115 has a double and opposite effect on Drosophila viability. On the one hand, it extends the life span of adult flies, on the other, decreases survival at preimaginal stages.

[Identification of Indy(p115) mutation in the Na+-dicarboxylate transporter gene in Drosophila melanogaster]. / Identifikatsiia mutatsii Indy(p115) Na+-dikarboksilat transportera Drosophila melanogaster.

The P[lArB]-element insertional mutation (Indyp115) was obtained in the promoter region of the Na(+)-dicarboxylate transporter gene of Drosophila (gene Indy, I'm not dead yet) within the 75D region of chromosome 3. The expression pattern of the reporter beta-galactosidase was determined in various tissues of third-instar larvae and adult flies. Both males and females homozygous for this mutation were fertile, though their viability was reduced. The two lethality phases were revealed in embryogenesis at nucleus cleavage stages 1-5 to the point of blastoderm formation and at latest stages 15-16, as well as at stage 17, when the larval development is completed though the larva still remains in the chorion. The gene expression in the follicular cells of an embryo at the terminal oogenesis stages is suggested to cause the first lethality stage. The expression pattern of this gene seems also to account for the tissue- and stage-specific activity of the 5'-regulatory region in the Indy gene.

Rarefaction shock wave: formation under short pulse laser ablation of solids.

We investigate formation, dynamics, and decay of the rarefaction shock wave under the conditions of ultrashort pulse laser ablation of solids. On the basis of the Euler equation and the van der Waals equation, we consider the planar and spherical expansion into vacuum matter heated instantaneously above the thermodynamic critical temperature. When the expansion occurs along an abnormal adiabat, in a part of which ( partial differential(2)p/ partial differentialv(2))/(S)<0, a rarefaction shock wave moving toward the target is formed. After its reflection from the nonvaporized material of the target, a thin dense layer of the expanding material is found to be formed. We suggest that this is the explanation for interference patterns observed experimentally above laser ablated surfaces. It has been speculated that the rarefaction shock wave may be formed on nova outbursts.

[The effect of some mutations in the Trl gene on mitosis in embryonal and larval tissues and egg chamber morphology in Drosophila melanogaster]. / Vliianie nekotorykh mutatsii po genu Trl na mitoz v émbrional'noi i lichinochnykh tkaniakh i morfologiiu iaitsevykh kamer u Drosophila melanogaster.

A study was made of three insertional mutations (Trl13C, Trls2325, and TrlEP(3)3184) located in the second intron of the Trithorax-like (Trl) gene for the GAGA transcription factor (GAF). Their cytological effects were analyzed in oogenesis, early embryonic development, and in larval development (96-108 h) in cells of nervous ganglia and imaginal disks. Notwithstanding an interallelic difference in expression, all three P-element insertions proved to be dominant as far as the examined parameters were concerned. The most substantial defects were the formation of "granular" chromatin during the interphase and mitosis and high proportions of cells with hypercondensed chromatin (which were arrested at the G2/M boundary) and cells with abnormal chromosome segregation. A higher frequency of egg chambers with trophocytes defective in number and in chromatin condensation was observed in females carrying the mutant Trl gene. The defects were assumed to result from poor coordination of the chromosome and cell cycles and, including, the nuclear and centrosomal cycles in embryonic development and the cycles of chromosome condensation and spindle formation in cells of larval imaginal disks and nervous ganglia.